Giants of Compassion
Jerry L. Schmalenberger, ELCA Global Mission Volunteer
When I enter the campus
gate of Pandidikan Diakones HKBP, they sing a
greeting with joy and love in their sparkling
eyes and radiant faces. It says you are welcome
Ompung and you are loved here.
There are about 60 of them in this Balige
school, 18-24 year old giants of compassion who
are very precious to me. I teach them
Homiletics, Pastoral Care and Counseling,
Stewardship, Church Organization and Conflict
Management. They teach me real discipleship,
life together, love of others, and humble
service.
In the Mark 2 story of
bringing the paralytic to Christ and letting him
down through the roof of Simon Peterʼs
mother-in-law, it simply says that Jesus had
compassion on him. It is a phrase that is used
over and over describing Jesus' ministry. These
young women students and their teachers have
that same exorbitant compassion for others.
Their ministries are for lepers, blind,
physically and mentally challenged, lame,
grieving, ostracized, and the hungry. They are
that compassionate Christ incarnate in the
jails, hospitals with the sick and dying, the
victims of volcanoes, earthquakes and tsunamis,
and the poor elderly in their slum homes. They
care for Sumatra's orphans. They teach
kindergarten. There is no job too dirty or
humbling which they will not undertake on God's
behalf.
They
often come from the poorest villages and Batak
families; but they are rich in the faith. I
serve them bread and wine and lay on hands for
healing, celebrating the real presence of
Christ; they go from their campus to take that
real presence out into what is often a cruel
world full of hurt and suffering. Their
chosen leader, Sister Sittanggang, leads not
from the middle but ahead, commanding respect,
from, and like, her male HKBP colleagues. Few
challenge her for they sense her mission and
strategies for getting there are Holy Spirit
led. Her staff is deeply committed and
competent, humble, disciplined and immersed
deeply into a hands-on practical, loving
ministry. My two Cucu, Tio Sihombing and Eleven
Sihotang, complement with young enthusiasm their
mission and dedication.
The early days were not as easy. When they first moved into these quarters they were squeezed into a far too small facility. But without complaining they slept five to a room on three mattresses. I slept on a mat laid out on a board shelf in an office. Rice was cooked over a wood fire out back. Now, because of the recognition of this school of giants of compassion, a new bus has been purchased, new beautiful classrooms constructed, a computer lab built and furnished with the latest technology and a theological library opened.
Leaving is not easy either. “Ompungʼs pig” is bled and killed and we eat the blood and spice seasoned Batak food, Sac Sang. Then we dance the Tor Tor, sing a hymn, some hug with tears streaming down their golden faces, others just shake hands and then touch heart as is their tradition to indicate the deep feeling. I hide my tears of joyful sadness until we are on the road to Polonia airport at Medan.
One morning at 5 am Cucu Morina came to my door announcing “Ompung, now we catch the pig.” I was led to an enclosed lot I had never seen before where the students hang their clothes to dry. And where they grow “Ompungʼs pig” which is fed scraps from the kitchen so as to provide the pork for the departing meal for their beloved Ompung. The game was to catch the pig. About 15 pajama clad students screaming and laughing ran in the mud helter-skelter under the drying laundry tackling that large hunk of bacon! The pig grunted in what might have been Batak and the laundry went flying as attempts to upend the squealing porker failed again and again.
Finally the pig, overpowered and caught by the fun filled young women, was tied to a long stick, and carried very ceremoniously to a spot near the fire pit. Lamria, with a savage glint in her eye demonstrating she had done this before, produced a long bladed knife and basin to cut the throat, saving the delicious blood which was used later as seasoning for the Sac Sang. That night we ate Ompungʼs favorite Batak meal as we knowingly glanced at each other with a smile not understood by the school staff.
While Deaconess schools in Europe and America are closing and simply drying up, this one thrives! If I were to select a hymn that best represents these God's children living together, it would be my ordination hymn by Frederick W. Faber: “There's a Wideness in God's Mercy (like the wideness of the sea). Verse 2, paraphrased, has it “...there is no place where earth's sorrows are more felt than in HKBPʼs Deaconess School. There is grace enough for thousands of those who need it most.” And if I could choose scripture that best fits this God's Eden it would be the Beatitudes in Matthew 5 which are their “Ima Tutuʼs”.
The description of Jesus as High Priest in Hebrews 5:2 describes them as well: "He is able to deal gently with the ignorant and wayward, since he himself is subject to weakness”.Sai Debata ma mandongani,
Ompung Jerry